Take flight
by Doctor.313
Summary: A fumbling Blue-and-gold macaw who was thrown out of his tribe by unfair reasons, now searches for a place to call home and because of his uneasy personality, this task has been really hard. So far.


The bird was escaping, not only from his old home, but also from his problems, and the only way he found to do that was by flying since it was the one individual thing no one complained about him. —At least for the time being.

His mind wasn't really concentrated on the course he was taking, actually, it was on his new found hate towards yellow and blue macaws; ironically he was one of them. His memories were also flashing through his vision and it made all even more clumsy.

He shrill toned voice started to rant to nothing, all he said was "Oh, that mediocre middle-aged blueberry head will pay, and the price won't be cheap, it will be expensive…EXPENSQUAWK!" He screamed realizing he almost hit a twig, with that signal he understood that it was time to stop rumbling and actually to start looking wherever he was going. "Ok, ok, ok, stop thinking about banal things like that." He moved his head left and right while telling himself, trying to tranquilize his mental situation a little; unfortunately, immediately after his beak closed the thought 'Banal, what a joke.' crossed his mind. He shook his head frantically again trying to stop thinking about those things.

Now with —Most— of his psychologic clear, he speeded up, and, to do some maneuvers like: looping around branches, getting through tight spaces in branches, touching his wingtips on trunks, and the most frequent one and also his favorite; the 'barrel rolls' all that for the sake of being cool, it wasn't working too well.

After a while, he stopped his self-show, and deaccelerating so it was possible to land without any bruises he gazed on the local flora. His sentiments turned from tired of the maneuvers to complete fear. He slowly gulped as he decided to look around the ambiance.

Normally he would just say something like "Oh, cool" but now, he couldn't. It wasn't just the fact that his talons were touching rather humid leaves; it wasn't because of the dirt ground, actually, it was because of the tall fruit trees.

His shaking talons slid a little on the vegetation that looked like a carpet scattered through the ground, and when he noticed it he moved rapidly his head up, and it didn't work, because instead of seeing something familiar, he noticed the brushes and flowers scarcely sharing the horizon for themselves. And then his theories turned to be right.

"Oh no, I think I'm out of bounds." He rotated his body, giving him an ample sight of the place. "Emphasis in out." His beak slightly and nervously said, almost not even moving enough for his voice to come out.

With clear hesitation he started to identify the trees, he knew how to do so, because being a blue-and-gold macaw wasn't the simplest thing to be, far from that; to say the least most if not all of them had to memorize every tree, every inch, every little detail of their 'beautiful and beloved forest.' "Does it pay off?" Diego thought reluctantly to answer; he noticed he was thinking about his tribe again, actually, 'that tribe' would be better put here. And again he noticed how hooked on he was on insulting that place, so he slapped himself and again initiated the process of researching his surroundings.

"Hmm." With as much focus he could put into his gaze, he stared at one particular trunk. "Wow…" He said fascinated about how different those fellow plants looked. "These patterns are really… exquisite yet marvelous." But good things most of the time end quickly, and he noticed why. "WAIT A SECOND THIS IS SCARLET TERRITORY!" He panicky shouted; unluckily loud enough to catch attention —something he wasn't looking forward.

A really broken and painfully loud squawk resounded and awarded a lone and mostly breathed not said 'oh no' from him.

In consequence, his wing involuntarily opened, it was signing to him it was time to take flight, just a timely matter until he tried to jump in the air.

Tried to at least.

The sound came closer, therefore increasing its volume and pitch, that made everything worse for him, at the point where he flinched and wasn't able to beat his wings to gain altitude. He couldn't do anything, fear took control and with every passing thousandth his vision blurred, his balance felt uncomfortably compromised, and his body shakier. All that because of both fear and how cowardly natured he was.

Gladly when the noise reached its most horrid sonority possible, it didn't last long. Well, almost gladly, because the yellow-bellied macaw got tackled and his neck completely pinned to the dirty ground. He noticed the grayish talon, and because he now knew it was a living thing, he tried to sound friendly.

"Oh, hello there, do you want something with me?" he stuttered saying those words, but he continued. "Do you need water?" he shown a 'super social active bird' smile trying to sound as non-menacing as possible. It didn't work, so he continued once again. "I totally know where you can find I-" As the grip that united him to the ground started to became tighter, he becomes silent and his throat throbbed in response.

"Shh, shut up already!" a childish voice trying too hard to sound menacing sighed, Diego somehow could tell it was a female talking, maybe because of the pitch. "Now, identify yourself immediately" She quickly added, Diego still too startled didn't respond. "What part of immediately you don't understand?" Now with a much more somber tone, she said, and it was a little too much for his liking.

"I'm not a" he coughed before proceeding, "Threat and I'm not here to attack." It was a complete struggle to both say those words and try to escape her grasp, impossibly it became even worse.

"You know." She said leaning towards his face, revealing her facial expression, the green eyes she had were complementing her grin in such a way that made the other bird feel uncomfortable. "That's not a convincing name."

He wasn't able to think, so he desperately just said the first words that came across his mind.

"A joker, aren't you?" He mentally punched himself.

It awarded a threatening chuckle, and then she forced her talon even more, his head trembled since his oxygen was becoming scarce.

His vision was starting to fade, his body started to become numb, all his pain on the lung was stopping and all the suffering started to end as he started to die.

"Ahem," a voice came next to him, and her talon becomes as loose as possible without letting him escape, without a second thought he gasped for air and started to cough as the cold breeze started to enter his nostril and occupy his lungs. "And you, what part of 'Do not kill before asking' you don't understand?"

She stammered a lot before being able to respond.

"Well, you see."

The gold macaw looked to the side, since now it was possible without some kind of obstruction, all he saw was a scarlet macaw looking doubtful at her.

"I'm waiting." He said tapping his talons who were also close to the pinned bird.

"Look, I gave him a lot of opportunities to talk." She said too determined, but he just closed his eyes and opened his beak to say something.

"You gave him 2 opportunities, and you were literally killing him on both." He yelled angrily, she didn't look scared, just as angry as him. But then he heard something, some flapping sounds, it was a hint that there was more of them, and if he doesn't answer their questions fast he could be put into a really bad situation.

"It's not my fault he was being all joker and full of attitude on me!" She mostly screamed.

"My name is Diego!" He screamed getting their attention; he was about to say that he wasn't a threat again but gave up.

Both scarlet macaws, who were arguing little ago, looked at each other and gave an acknowledgeable sigh, the male turned back a went to where Diego supposed that there was the rest of the others.

"What are you doing in this area?" She asked with a more calm tone of voice.

"Look, I could say that neither I know, and it would be actually true, but you wouldn't believe me would you?" He proposed that answer to her, only getting a negative nod.

"Well, ok." He continued, frankly it was a very touchy subject, but if he doesn't answer worse things that telling someone it would come. "I was thrown out of my tribe, I had to find somewhere to go." He said somewhat sadly. "BUT GUESS WHAT?" He tried to imitate a surprised emotion, he surely knew it wasn't a good time to do that, unhappily it was something stuck in his personality. "I decided to follow this path, and you found me here. When you made that 'horrible' sound." He made sure no one would hear horrible. "I tried to fly away, but you grabbed me and now I'm here at this death trial." It was there, his full statement.

Silence was spread, she wasn't able to answer, not because she was astonished, actually she was just thinking about it, he shivered a little seeing how tense everything was, not only that but knowing that he was being glared by 'a lot more he would ever have wanted' number of birds, contributed.

She finally broke the silence.

"Does that sound plausible enough for you?" She asked looking back and after a while left, she earned some positive nods, Diego was honestly surprised, his voice was cracking through the entire discussion and he was sure his tone wasn't convincing enough. "Ok, I believe you." She sighed, taking out her talons of his neck.

He hurriedly stood up and started touching it to see if there were any rips or if it was even there. In plain relief, he thought how easily convinced they were.

"You are free to go." She said raising her wing and pointing north, it was like she was expelling him.

Obviously, he could just fly off but something else was on his mind, something he could either be regretful for asking or be forever grateful.

"Hey, I don't know anything about your tribe, but would it be too much to ask shelter there?"

"Are you what? Crazy?" She eagerly said, coming back to her rude tone. "Look, it's not because I have something against you, because I sure do!" She said, and Diego quickly frowned. "It's just because…You are yellow and gold."

'It's blue-and-yellow for your information' he impatiently thought. "Look, I can't change the fact that I am a…" He said calmly before putting a lot of force on the next 3 words. " 'Yellow and gold'" he said, but quickly after that, he looked down melancholically.

The male who was arguing with the female earlier stepped up and caught up with her, his glare was fixed on Diego's sad figure, but he wasn't showing any kind of pity.

"And anyway, what would you even provide to the tribe." He asked still focusing on the sorrowful macaw.

Diego then lightens up a little, and with a little awkward smile stated: "I could provide recognition work."

"Not enough."

"What about border guard?" He spoke a little louder and fast, his smile was even wider but still as awkward that it made it look false. They weren't impressed by what he proposed them, so they simply turned back and elevated their wings to start flying, it was there that fear of being left alone again stuck Diego, and he screamed his last proposal. "LISTEN, I CAN DO BOTH." He turned his head a little after saying that, 'it's not like I've not done it for the past sixteen years.'

That created interest, so the red macaw started to scan his body, top to bottom, left and right, wing and wing, and then his reaction of focus changed to interest. "Hmm, assign him for the test." He pointed to one red macaw who had dark brown eyes, he just flapped his wings and fly away towards the south. "And the rest just go back home, I have to talk to this… fellow macaw here." He ordered them.

"But, what if he tries to hurt you." The female Diego now carry hate asked preoccupied.

The male then put his wing over Diego's shoulder, and then with a quick glare, he said menacingly.

"He won't."

"Yes, I won't haha." Diego laughed scared.

Then she just took flight and left Diego and the red macaw there, alone, and Diego was about to collapse.

"Listen, you are signed for the test." He started calmly, taking his wing away from Diego's elbow. "And there are somethings I want to say to you about it."

Diego tried his all to snap out of his fear, so he could speak normally.

"Ok, proceed, I'm all ears."

"First, if you fail, you are out."

"Out of the test?" Diego asked confused.

"Out of the tribe." The red bird answered, "Second, if you are accepted, and then show any kind of betrayal, you are also out." He continued moving his wing up and down as he talked. "And lastly, third; if you are accepted you are immediately assigned for the next shift, it won't matter if it is the next day, the next hour, next second, you'll just be and there are no complaints, understood?" He asked concluding.

Diego nodded quietly, not because it sounded hard, actually he was just quiet because he was happy, and didn't want to just scream there. "Ok, I understand."

The red bird then gave him a weak smile, probably because Diego was comprehensive with his explanation.

"And now you are supposed to take me to the tribe, right?" Diego asked.

"Yes." Was the only, but sufficient answer he got.

"And then you will show me the tribe? Like some kind of guide?" The blue-and-yellow macaw questioned innocently, then he noticed how the scarlet face closed.

"Do I look like some kind of guide?" He angrily sighed, and then slowly put his wingtips on both of his closed eyes. "Listen, I'll lead you to the tribe, BUT, after that, you're on your own."

Diego noticed how angry he was by his question, inside he was yelling all kinds of insults to him, but outside he was just showing a sad and disappointed-by-my-actions face.

"I'm ready to take off." Diego stated.

The Scarlet Macaw opened his wings signaling to his "guest" it was time to fly, so Diego did the same and flapped his wings taking flight toward his new home.

On the other side of the coin, was the Red Macaw who was guiding him, he surely wasn't convinced about this "Diego", if he did something to be exiled, it had to be something bad. 'But, thinking better, if he does something dangerous to us, the scarlet's tribe is not his home, and we could easily outnumber him.' He thought.

"Hey." Diego noticed his guide was stopped. "Are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine, let's go." He said snapping out of his thoughts.

The flight was rather tranquil, Diego most of the times opened his beak and sighed looking up; appreciating the sun rays that permeated the slim layer that leaves had, touching his face, it was a warm yet comforting feeling he felt every time the sun would lean on his feathers.

The Mostly yellow bird then closed his eyes; guessing that following that rhythm they wouldn't change direction any time soon, with his eyes closed and a smile, he gladly took the cool breeze that was blowing towards his face.

"Well." The bird spoke looking at him, and then mockingly he said: "I see you're enjoying the air."

Diego got embarrassed by that, he totally forgot that he was being guided, then the thoughts of he being an idiot started to flow through his mind.

"No, no, no!" Diego quickly countered. "I'm just tired." He said trying to be as reasonable as possible.

"Yeah, yeah." The other ironically responded. "Anyway, when we get to the tribe, I'll direct you to Felipe."

"What happened to the guide thin…" He stopped mid-sentence when he noticed that his guide was looking threatening to him. "I mean, who's Felipe?"

"The leader."

"Oh." Diego said, but then memories started to pass like a movie in his mind, and then without even thinking he grumbled, "With my past experience with leaders, he must really be a nice guy."

"You bet." His tone was, anyhow, indescribable, so Diego didn't think too much about it, anyway, his guide was from de Scarlet tribe, he couldn't be back talking about his leader.

Diego then tranquilly decided to ask a question that was in his mind since the red macaw noticed how distracted by the wind he was.

"How close are we?"

"Enough."

"Hey, no need to be rude, I'm going to shut up already." Diego said dissatisfied with the answer.

"I mean, we are close enough." The red macaw corrected himself, actually just added some words to the sentence to make it more understandable.

"Oh, now I get it." He answered in understanding.

He then started to open his beak, but closed it quickly, but then started to try and say something, and then closed it again.

"Spill it out." The other bird said impatiently with Diego's hesitation.

"Well, could you tell me more about you?" Diego asked, one second passed and the exiled thought it was too much time, so he tried to erase the memory of his question from the Scarlet's mind. "Why would anyone even think about talking of their personal life to a stranger? Let alone one from another tribe!" Diego nervously laughed trying to sound less agonized by his shame.

"You have some common sense inside your mind, at least." The other responded bitterly. "But, just so you can call me something other than 'guide', the name's Francisco."

Diego focused on memorizing the name, then he happily told Francisco that he got it memorized.

The last part of the way to the tribe was quiet, Diego kept sighing every two minutes or so while Francisco was humming an indifferent music, in fact, it was very addictive to the exiled avian ears.

Francisco stopped his music, and looked more forward than usual, the blue-and-yellow bird decided to do the same, and so his eyes caught the sight of a huge perforated tree, it didn't take too much for he to understand it was a tunnel-like entrance to somewhere, this was a clue he arrived somewhere.

The scarlet quickly accelerated and dove into the hole leaving Diego outside, still, he could hear that Francisco's muffled voice was talking inside.

"Come!" Francisco cried, not too loud but still appalling enough to catch Diego's attention.

Diego came closer to the tree ground and the exact moment his talons touched the ground and in consequence permitted who was inside to completely have sight of his body; someone snorted loudly enough, when he directed his face to the direction the sound came, his body paralyzed with terror.

"YOU REALLY BROUGHT HIM!" The female voice said laughing. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE JUST JOKING, BUT THIS IS GROUNDBREAKING." She said wiping a tear out of her left eye, and then mockingly greeted him. "Hello there, it's really a surprise to see you here." Diego hearing that started to think that 'mocking and trying to, directly and indirectly, kill me' would be a frequent thing from now on.

Francisco sighed seeing how childish his friend behavior was, so he tried to chill things out by saying something.

"Paloma." He said that directly so Diego could know her name. "Do you know if Jorge did what I asked him." He said stretching his wings trying to ease some of the pain after the long flight.

She quickly recomposed herself and nodded, after that her jungle green eyes meted with Diego's caramel ones, and by her expression, 'Go away' was almost written above her head, the level of archness was melting his confidence; that was already low by the standard.

"Jorge told me that Felipe wants to meet with the bird." She turned her head to Francisco. "When you have some spare time."

Diego thought that Felipe was talking about his spare time, so he got out of his startled state and lively spoke.

"I told you he would be a nice guy!"

"You know, I was talking about Francisco's free time." Paloma explained not too friendly to Diego.

'I'm regretting my life choices' Diego thought

"Spare time hum? Well, I don't think I have anything more to do today." Francisco uttered to both Diego and Paloma. "Diego, let's go." He said right before he jumped out of the tree hole, Diego now knew that the female would say something malicious just to break his confidence.

"Ooh, I really wish you gooood luck." She said looking to him with a very mockingly face, proofing that Diego's theory was right.

"Oh, so kind of you." He said jumping outside starting to follow Francisco who was not too far from him.

With Diego out, Paloma said almost completely silent 'You won't be here for too long, canindé.'

Diego caught up with Francisco, and so he started to ask him a question.

"Could you please tell me more about the test? I'm kind of lost about it." The blue back bird asked politely, scratching his itchy neck.

"Well, it will be a three-phased test, which will put you… well, to test, see if you know how to camouflage well, how skillful is your flying, and the most important part; how much attention you put into your work." Francisco explained wisely while looking at Diego to see if he was getting it all.

But the moment he heard the last part, his hearts jumped a beat and he glared Francisco with such a scared face, that even Francisco became startled by it.

"What, did you just say?" Diego impulsively asked rhetorically, but he knew that Francisco would repeat it, so he prepared psychologically for it.

"Well, it will be a th—" Francisco started, but Diego cut him out.

"I mean the last part, the MOST IMPORTANT one." Diego tried to sound calm, but he only got it in the first part, because after that he screamed, thankfully he wasn't on the habituated part of the tribe.

"Why, why did you screamed?" Francisco asked him with wide eyes. "Ok, ok, I said how much attention you put into your work."

'Oh…Dear' Diego thought preoccupied.

* * *

 **Author note**

Hello there, so this here is a rewritten version of an old chapter; i thought that one was kind of rushed and confusing. So i decided to rewrite it entirely instead of just making changes.  
Also something i wanted to mention, if someone got confused with the word "Canindé" it is an abbreviation of "Arara-Canindé" which is the name of blue-and-yellow macaw in the portuguese language.

Any constructive criticism and advices will be appreciated, thanks for reading it.


End file.
